Cancer is the second most common cause of death in the United States. Treatments for this disease involve the administration of toxic chemicals to the body, which can be harmful in excessive doses and ineffective in inadequate doses. One method of cancer treatment is chemotherapy. Chemotherapy involves injectable drugs that target rapidly dividing cells for destruction. Rapidly dividing cells in the body are affected by the toxicity of the drug, and overexposure to the drug can lead to widespread tissue damage with a variety of symptoms. Thus, a goal of oncologists is to prescribe medications that are potent enough to significantly reduce the number of malignant cells without causing significant systemic damage to a patient.
In practice, chemotherapy doses are prepared by pharmacy technicians who transfer drugs from vials to patient-specific IV bags with syringes. The volumes that are required for each dose are calculated from the prescriptions and measured with a volumetric scale on a barrel of the syringe. However, preparing doses in this manner is notoriously imprecise and inaccurate. For example, one study concluded that only 86% of doses prepared in this manner are accurate to within 10% of the prescription, and only 72% of doses are accurate to within 5% of the prescription. The magnitude of this error is primarily a result of estimations made by the technicians who are using potentially inaccurate volumetric measurements on the syringes, themselves. Although, error may also be attributed to residual fluid left in the syringes after dispensing, and potentially other practices in the preparation of the dose. Thus, it is desirable to reduce error in the process of dose preparation by automating the dosage process, thereby removing the element of human estimation. While some automated dose-measuring systems exist, they are both expensive and too large for use in a fume hood or crowded laboratory setting.
Accordingly, a need exists for devices, systems, and methods for volumetrically measuring syringe fluids that provide users the ability to transfer prescribed drugs, in particular chemotherapy drugs, with greater precision and accuracy, without adding significant preparation time or cost, and while minimizing risk of contamination.